zetsuboū no sakura
by shiroyuki42
Summary: A Dutch woman, Melissa van Rijn decides to go to japan to studie the samurai there. But its the year 1864, Japan is in turmoil. She is captured by the samurai opposing the westernizing of japan and is allowd to live with them as she wittnisses the bloody bakumatsu and the falling of the last samurai.
1. Chapter 1

Zetsuboū no sakura,

Chapter 0.1, Midori no oka (green hills)

As I stood there, watching the battel infront of me. I had the feeling I finaly understood Bushidoū, the way of the samurai, for the first time.  
>This battel cruel and jet beautiful, short and jet it felt like ages. Just like watching Sakura fall.<br>Kazama once told me " we samurai tend to live like sakura, short but we die in full bloom"  
>And it was true.<p>

It was 1867, the last year of the bakumatsu. And the last samurai where falling infront of me like sakura.


	2. Chapter 1 Fune船

Chapter 1, Fune (ship) 船

1864, 5 June,

Dear dairy reader,

After a year on sea I finaly arrived in the land of the rising sun. Japan, or as the Japanese people call her ,Nihon. I arrived with a Dutch ship called 'De Morgenster' The harbour we arrived in was called Osaka, from there I would travel to the Dutch embassy in Kyoto (a secret one because foreigner's or Gajin were not allowed outside Osaka). This country was in the middel of a war and I was here to write everything that happend down. I would study it from the rebel side of the war, the Ishin shishi. I was weapond with five empty diary's, a few notebooks,my basic japanese and a foto camera. Hopefully that would help me survive this war.

At the harbour I would be picked up by one of the Ishin Shishi samurai. I had no idea how he would look or how he would find me, but okay lets trust Mr Bruin. He was the one who made it possible to for me to go to Japan.  
>I walked of the ship onto the shore and looked around me. The harbour was buzzing with life. I saw Dutch an Japanese people trading with each other, and smiling together.<br>"Mrs van Rijn, I am your guide" I heard someone say in English .  
>I turned aroud to see a man around the age of fifty looking at me. The first thing a saw was the Katana at his hip " oh im sorry are you perhaps Mr Bruin friend" I said glad that he spoke English " yes, I am Sakuma Shōzan. A messenger on his trading ship informed me you would arrive with the next ship" Sakuma-san said I reached out my hand as to shake his and to introduce myself but he only looked weird at me.<br>"Eum.. my name is Melissa van Rijn" I said He then seemed to understand the gesture and took my hand "Nice to meet you, Melissa-san. Your luggage will be taken care of so please follow me" and he started to walk.  
>All people went out of the way for this old samurai. Dutch trademan looked in silence and full respect to him, japanese people bow to him as he walked past them. I quickly grabbed my notebook and started to write it down.<p>

{In this country pleople bow to the samurai when they walk by, unlike the knights in fedual Europe they demand a huge amound of respect. But the samurrai I encounterd, Sakuma Shōzan, does make an exemption for me, a western woman}

"Luckely you have brown hair, that won't stand out as mucht as blond" he said al of the sudden when we reached a huge storage shed. It was probably in use to store trading goods, but tonight a few younger samurai where standing there with lanterns and ther hands on ther katana.  
>When we approached them the younger samurai bowed in respect to Sakuma Shōzan and as custom described he gave them a littel bow back. I bowed as deep as I could while standing up.<br>This invoked some whisperung from the younger samurai.  
>I heard them say something about woman, baberian and not expected.<br>They than opend the door for us and we walked inside.

Inside it was dark and musty. It was stored with crates with who know what in it and if you listend carefully you could hear the rats tiptoe around.  
>"Sakuma-sama kochi desu" a female voice wishperd We walked behind one on the crates, only to reveal a small tent an a woman standing infront of it. When she saw me she looked strange at me and started to rattel someting in a nerveus voice.<br>"Sono ko otoko yanai, ona desuyo" she said "Hai sodesuka"  
>"Ah komarimasen, sumisasen Sakuma-sama"<br>Then he turned to me

Dear dairy, im noting it japanese sorry for that. But I want you to understand how wonderfull it sounds, and to let you imagination speak for youself.

Try to learn that's why im writhing ,Dear dairy reader.

And to my biggest suprise he said "There has been a problem, she tought it would be a man she had to dress up so she only brought male clothes" he said most concerned "That won't be a problem" I said. I didn't wanted to lose the change to study just because of a pair of clothes. So I stepped into the tent, the woman followd me and said in very broken English "Im Tae"  
>"Im Melissa" I said back After that she gave me a pair of cloths. She explained to me in japanese(after I explained to her I could underdstand a bit ) that the skirt like pants where called hakama and that it is normaly worn over a traditional kimono for man. It was worm by samuari en rurouni. The hakama was light brown and the kimono was dark red, with a white kimono underneat it. Afther I had put it on with her help (it is very hard to put it on. Right over left was the corect way to put on a kimono. Left over right was for the dead) I put on the tabi socks and stepped into the geta, Tae had put down for me.<p>

When I stepped out of the tent I could see Sakuma nod in agreement. Apparently it was good enough for him, but not for Tae. She grabbed my hair and put it in a ponytail ontop of my head. "Kampeki" she said "Kampeki dewanai" Sakuma said. And he grabbed a straw head from the head of one of the younger samurai standing besides him and placed it on my head. "Now your face is coverd" he said "lets go!" He yelled and everybody walked behind him, to the door.

When we stepped outside I saw it already had become dark. The stars where glittering in the night sky. And I couldn't help but think that even though it was the same sky as always, it looked compleatly different than the starry sky at home. I was asked to sit in a wooden carriage together with Sakuma. Tae didn't come with us. When we took of she yelled "Ganbate melissa san!"  
>"Arrigato!" I yelled back, watching the light blue of her kimono dissapear into the darkness of the night.<p>

Nyaaaa hello everyone.  
>How do you like the first chapter^^ If you like it please check my other story cold flame (ongoing)<br>Also I LOVE reviews.

Shiroyuki42~ 白有機


	3. Chapter 2 Miyako京都

Most of the characters in my story did lived and fought in the bakumatsu. Only melissa and Kazama and some of the smaller characters are fiction.

Chapter 2 Miyako font face="Nimbus Mono L, monospace"span lang="zh-CN"京都/span/font

1864, 7 June

I had arrived in Kyoto, It had cost us roughly ten houres to reach the inn I would stay in. The name of the inn was Ikedaya, it was a beautiful inn. I was given my own room at the upper floor of the inn and could look over a part of Kyoto. I could also wear my dark green western dress again. It was a three pieced dress. One long skirt, a kneelengt one over the long skirt and a neet jacked in the same coular dark green as the skirts. Black lines cirles around the end of my sleeves, neck and end of my long and short skirt. Black buttons closed the jacked. My long brown hair wich normally reached my hips was neatly bound in the ruling hairfashion of this time. The only thing I could not wear where my black leather low heel shoes. So I was walkimg around the inn on my socks. It gave me a strange feeling, I could feel the tatami mats underneat my feet. I was forbidden to go to grownd floor. In there were the regular customers and some of them were supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate. I was writing down the current situation in japan.

{right now there is a cearly feelable tension between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Choshu Ishiin Shishi. The Tokugawa is in power right now and is more crueler to outsiders(who are called Gaijin) sinds the law that emperor Koumei regulated. The sonnõ joui "Revere the emperor, expel the foregein babarians"  
>The Choshu wants to allow the westerners into japan and learn from them.<br>Sakuma san is one of them, his motto is tōyō dōtoku, seiyō gakugei, wich means Eastern ethics, Western technical learning. The war between the two fractions started in 1853 and has continued until now.  
>Sakuma san asked me a lot of things about Holland, how it was to live there, what it looked like.<br>I awnser him like this "It is really green in Holland, and a lot of water. We build a lot of dyckes to keep the water from floading our country. Everywhere you look you see molens (mills). And Amsterdam, our capital is always buzzing with live" He listend to me with his fullest attention.  
>He was very excited to teach me about japan. Thanks to him I had learned more japanese}<p>

"Melissa san" someone said behind the sliding door of my room "Hai" I awnserd "You have a visitor"  
>'A visitor for me?' I thought I stood up from my low writing desk and walked towards the sliding door.<br>When I opend it a japanese man with long black hair hanging loosly around his shoulders stepped into the room. He almost bumped into me. He clearly did not expect me to be standing while opening the door. In japan a woman opend the door while kneeling and sitting besides the opening of the door so the guest can enter freely. Sakuma san said I should not do that, Because I was not Japanese. "Sumisasen" I stutterd "Its fine" the man said "Can I come in and talk with you"  
>"Hai" I said, and stepped aside for the man. He walked into the room, grabbed a sitting pillow and kneeled down in the middel of the room. I grabbed my pillow and sat dawn infront of him.<br>I put both my hands infront of me and let them touch eachoter while bowing lightly. Even though Sakuma san said they did not expect me to abide with japanese customs, I wanted to try the best I could "My name is Melissa van Rijn, I am pleased to meet you"  
>He did the same thing and said " the pleasure is all mine, my name is Katsura Kogoro"<br>Now a alarm bell went off inside my head. I had heard the name before. He was none other than the leader of the Choshu Isshin Shishi.  
>"Melissa san, I would like to thank you for coming here. It will be difficult for estern countries to jnderstand what is happening here. So I am very pleased that a Dutch woman like you is comimg here to record it all" he said beinning our conversation.<br>"No, I am honerd that you let me stay here and study. Ever sind I was small Nihon interested me. So to be here surrounded by samurai who are all willingly to talk to me an teach me is like a dream coming true"  
>"I am glad you feel save and comfortable here in Ikedaya, no in Kyoto. Right now it is not save"<br>"I am aware of that"  
>"Listen, Melissa san. Tonight at 20:00 a meeting will be held discussing the curent situation. I want you to note down everyting you here. Ofcourse you wont be visable present, you will sit in an other room behind a thin sliding door so you can hear everything"<br>I was stunned, I a western woman could listen to ther strategic meeting "I would be most honerd if I may listen and learn"  
>"Good, you will be guarded by a skilled ronin called Kawakami Gensai"<br>And with those words he stood up and left the room.  
>Tonight would be a night to remember.<p>

Im writing this chapter with the music from the legend of korra in the background. I was so sad when the show ended. I was screaming, crying and fangirling like hell in the final of LOK. It was/is a great show.  
>I will miss you Korra, <p>


	4. Chapter Ikedaya jiken 池田屋事件

Ikedaya jiken font face="Nimbus Mono L, monospace"span lang="zh-CN"池田事件/span/font

1864, July 8 Katsura san had said he would not be present and that he had other businesses to attend to so he left around 21:30 together with Sakuma san. With that the meeting immediately got a bit more boring. I was bizzy noting down what was said. I only looked up from my notes to look at the ronin sitting in the corner of the room. Kawakami Gensai was his name, he was 30 years old and was known as a hitokiri. If you split the word into Hito, human and kiri murder you would know what he was. He was a assasin for the Choshu Ishin Shishi. He was looking outside the windo, I followd his gaze towards the moon who shined bright in the night sky.  
>All of the sudden I heard a lot of noise behind the sliding door. Kawakami Gensai focused his gaze on the door while holding onto his Katana. The candles were blown out and it was pitch dark.<br>The noise of running foots was coming closer " Anybody who resist will be cut down!" Was yelled on the other side of the door "Its the shinsengumi!"  
>"Its the commander Kondou Isami and Tôdo Heisuke!"<br>"Shinsengumi" I wisperd. But before I could say anything else Kawakami Gensai coverd my mouth.  
>"Don't make a sound, I am gonna get you out of here alive" he said and he drew his katana.<br>The Shinsengumi was a group of ruthless samurai. They were known for there bloodlust and the most infamous one was the vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo. There trade mark was there light blue Haori (overcoat), there banner with the word sinscerety on it and the skill they possesed. Kawakami Gensai grabbed my bag with writing equipment and my camera and pushed them into my arms.  
>"Follow me" he said and he slid open the door.<br>Immediately a guy wearing a light blue haori came running towards us with his Katana raised. Kawakami Gensai dodged the first attack of the guy who swong his katana down. He then quickly attacked the side of the man and hit him. "Arrrrrg" the man screamed while colapsing. I held out his hand to me and I took it. I stapped over the body of the wounded man. We ran down the hallway with Kawakami Gensai cutting down everybody who stood in his way. It was my first time seeing samurai fight like this. There was a lot of blood and most of the light blue haori's the enemy wore were blood stained with either there own blood or from the Choshu enemy's. We kept on running, Kawakami Gensai did not finish off his enemy's, his only thought was to get me out of there as quick as possible. We ended up in the hallway wich leaded to the back garden. Kawakami Gensai had gabbed my brown leather boots and trew them to me.  
>"Run into the garden and as far as you can. Find my wife Misawa Teiko, she will take care of you" He said. I looked at him but his gaze was somewhere else.<br>"A western woman in Ikedaya what a suprise" somebody said I took a quick look before I ran away. The man standing there wore a light blue haori and had his Katana already unsheated. His haori was unstained by blood.  
>"You just missed al the fun Hijikata-san" Kawakami Gensai said The oni fuketaicho of the shinsengumi Hijikata Toshizo was standing against a hitokiri of the Choshu Isshin Shishi. This would be a battel of high caliber. I decided to watch where rpthis would go and hid in a corner. Kawakami Gensai made the first attack but it did not land. It was reflected by Hijikata's katana. Then Hijikata spun around Kawakami Gensai and hit his back. A red line appeard in the clothes of Kawakami Gensai. He fell to one knee and slashed forward. Hijikata's chest was gazed by his katana. He grinned and raised his katana. I had to save him, then my gaze fell on my camera.<br>I quickly installed my photo camera and took a quick shot. The flash blinded Hijikata for a moment's notice giving me and Kawakami Gensai the time to flee the battle.

I was somewhere in the street of Kyoto with no idea were to go. Kawakami Gensai had ran towards a other way.  
>Somewehere along the way I had put on my boots and put the wooden case wich holded my camera on my back. The bag with my diary was clenched in my fist. The photo I just took had come out beatifully. You could clearly see Hijikata with his katana ready to strike Kawakami Gensai. He was holding his katana above his head to block him. I put it away in my diary and began to write down what happend just now. I had just finished my last sentence when I head the sound of a katana being pulled out of its saya.<br>Without being given the time to react I felt the kisakki of the katana against my neck.  
>"Don't move" someone said I dropped my pencil and diary.<br>" I am sorry but you should have stayed in your own country. That way you would not have to die right now"  
>I felt the kisakki go away from my neck.<br>Whoever it was he would slash me from behind and I would die. A tear fell down my cheek. My journey would end this quickly and I only learned so littel. "Keinosuke stop!" somebody yelled The air of the katana was the only thing that touched my neck. I turned around to see a member of the shinsengumi, probably Keinosuke, crossing his katana with a other man. He did not wear a shinsengumi haoiri "Why stop me Kazama!" Keinosuke yelled "She is just a woman, we should bring her to Osaka and she can go back. She has nothing to do with our war"  
>" no way I am going back, there is so much to learn here!" I yelled Both man were suprised to hear me speak fluent Japanese. Although it had some loss ends I could still speak it very well. Thanks to mr Bruin and Sakuma-san.<br>The man, Kazama took his katana down and so did Keinosuke.  
>"You speak japanese" he said "Yes, I learned a lot in my home land"<br>"See she is a spie, we should kill her" Keinosuke yelled and he raised his Katana again.  
>Kazama blocked it and again the two man stood with there swords crossed. While there attentions was with eachother and not with me,I took down the wooden case and took the camera out of it. I put the case back on my back and turned towards the man.<br>"She is just a woman, is she word fighting your friend for" Keinosuke sissed "O Please do not fight over me" and I took my second picture of the night. The flash blinded the two man and I ran away.  
>"Alsof ik hier te pakken genomen zal worden, er is nog veel meer te ontdekken" I yelled in my nativ language. As if they will catch me here, there is a lot more to discover. "Shit" I heard them both say I ran as fast as I could "Wait!" They yelled.<br>Damm they are quick I thought when I looked behind me. They were closhing in on me. I took another picture to blind them. They lost sight again and they bumped into each other.  
>I could not help it but to laugh "You bitch wait up!" The man called Keinosuke yelled "I won't so SAYONARA!" I yelled and turned around a corner. The heels of my shoes slipped aay when I made the turn and I almost fell. I continued to run, or so was the plan because somebody grabbed my dress and trew me on the ground. I dropped my bad and it sprung open. All my pencils, pots of ink and blank books were spread out on the ground.<br>I head my two persuers behind me saying.  
>"Osu Torii -sama you got her"<br>I looked at the man who had trown me on the ground. It was a old men arojnd the age of 50. He had his blade sheated but looked down at me as kf he could kil me any moment.  
>"Keinosuke, Kazama who is she" he said. He did not asked it, he commanded a awnser.<br>"Probably a western whore who has escaped from Ikedaya"  
>Whore, did I hear that right. I got angry and said "Whore ,pardon me. I am a researcher. I will not stand such insolence towards me" and stood up when I said that.<br>" I may be a western woman but even I have honor. No it is because I am a western woman that I have my own honor. "  
>The old man lay his hand on the hilt of his Katana. A obvious treat. I should shut up or else.<br>"Go ahead kill me. I came to this land compleatly understanding the risks "  
>The old man unheated his katana and hit me in the neck with his hilt.<br>I fell to the ground but I did not hit it. Insead I was cated by the arms of Kazama. I slowly felt my consciousness slip away.  
>"Keinosuke go back to the Shinsengumi. Kazama take her stuff and her with you"<br>"Understood" they said. And I saw the blue haori of Keinosuke run away in the night as my consciousness slipped away compleatly.

Again writing with bck grohnd music. This time Nurarihyon no mago soundtracks. You should check out the anime and manga^^

Oni fuketaicho - demon vice-commander Saya- shed of a Katana Shinsengumi- search wikipedia. Its to good and to long to describe well Kisakki- tip of a Katana


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